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Ortofon SPU Century, time to celebrate the heritage?

Ortofon has announced the release of the SPU Century to celebrate their 100th Anniversary. Suggested retailprice is $5k. Twice the price of the last Anniversary Edition - the SPU A95 - and part of the unfortunate price trend that already put the MC Century on the wrong side of $10k.

I was waiting for this release with some anticipation, but at that price I'm not joining the party. So why not celebrate the heritage instead and have a retrospective look at all the SPU's that have preceeded it. My own experience with SPU's so far is limited to the Classic GME mk2 and the A90. Sonically these two are worlds apart, making it hard to believe they belong to the same 'family'. So I'm really interested to find out how all the others - both vintage and current models - stack up. 

I'm sure it's not the first time this question has been asked here, but what are your favorite SPU's and why?


edgewear
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
My experience with SPU started with Classic GM mkII with conical tip and it was awful cartridge, but i decided to try limited edition SPU SPIRIT model with special coil wire and elliptical tip and it was much better. However, even my brand new SPU Spirit was not good for me, because i’ve noticed miss tracking even with the right settings of everything, so i sent it back for refund to Japanese shop where it came from. I promissed myself never go back to the SPU cartridges, but 4-5 years later i bought very best SPU i have ever tried. This was the SPU Royal G MKII with ORTOFON REPLICANT 100 stylus. That was the ONLY SPU with proper stylus and the sound it truly amazing for an SPU cartridge. The replicant 100 stylus (almost like Frits Gyger tip) in fact is not so difficult in set-up as i thought. It was easy to make my SPU Royal sing, the sound is so sweet. Anyway, i ended up with Fidelity-Research FR-7 series of cartridges, this is probably my last destination when it comes to low compliance headshell-integrated cartridges for heavy tonearms.
edgewear OP
543 posts
 
@chakster, Thanks for joining the SPU Anniversary party!
The Classic GME mk2 (with elliptical tip) didn't convince me either, although I wouldn't exactly call it awful (in my opinion that qualification would better suit the Denon DL-103 series). When used in the right system (i.e. not too high end) the Classic can sound beguiling and musical, but the limitations are still obvious.

The 90th Anniversary on the contrary is one of the most 'complete' cartridges I ever heard. Nothing sticks out or calls to its attention, but still everything is there. It has that magical balancing act of clarity and warmth at the same time (not unlikely the FR-7 series). No special tip profile like the Royal, just a regular elliptical tip (similar to the Classic GME mk2). Amazing cartridge!

So the Royal would clearly be an interesting one. How about the Gold Reference, which also had the Replicant 100 tip? Or should the Royal be regarded as the succesor of the Gold Reference?


chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
The GOLD Reference series is from 1989, the Royal GM is from 1998
The Royal G MKII with Replicant 100 is the later/improved version of that first Royal.  

But thanks for pointing me to the stylus tip of the Gold, i thought Royal G mkII is the only one with Replicant 100 

When i bought that Classic GM i had ZYX Airy cartridge and SPU was a garbage compared to ZYX, i was expecting "musicality and so on", but in fact it was just rolled off sound, not interesting at all to my ears. 

I can not say it about Spirit LTD or Royal G mkII which i enjoyed on Lustre GST-801 tonearm.

I am not expert in SPU, Ortofon made so many models to hook up SPU lovers forever. Smart marketing! I think any SPU over $2K is a rip-off. 
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